A Trip To The Library

I spent almost four hours at the fantastic new Hal Prince exhibit at the NY Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center the other day called “IN THE COMPANY OF HAROLD PRINCE”.

The exhibit brilliantly illuminates Prince’s 60 year career during which he produced and/or directed more than 40 Broadway shows, for which he was awarded 21 Tony awards, the most of any single individual. He is certainly one of the 2 or 3 most significant and influential creators of the Broadway Musical in its 120 year history.

Harold (Hal) Prince was born in 1928 in New York City. His adopted father was the child of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and his mother came from a Jewish-Canadian family. At an early age, he was taken to Broadway shows by his middle class, theater-loving parents, and he soon discovered a lifelong calling. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania at age 19, Prince looked for a way to break into the theater.

He started working as an unpaid apprentice for the already legendary director/producer/playwright George (Mr.) Abbott. At a very young age he was entrusted with important jobs, first as an Assistant Stage Manager, and soon after as the Stage Manager of hit musicals such as Wonderful Town, written by Comden & Green, Joe Fields and Loenard Bernstein, and starring Rosalind Russell.

He soon convinced Abbott and his partners to let him become a co-producer with them, before going off on his own. During this period he became something of a “boy wonder” co-producing a string of Golden Age hits including The Pajama Game, Damn Yankees, West Side Story, and Fiddler On The Roof.

However, he has always first and foremost seen himself as a director, and after several lesser efforts he had a sensational hit with the musical CABARET, which he produced and directed. This show gave birth to the era of the “Concept Musical,” and Prince is considered to be the driving force behind the this new kind of show.

The idea of the “Concept Musical” actually started with director/choreographer Jerome Robbins and his approach to West Side Story, and especially Fiddler On The Roof. Prince picked up these ideas and ran with them, and combined them with theater techniques drawn from Russian, German and Asian theatrical productions that had inspired him.

He enlists the perfect creative partners to collaborate with him in realizing this vision: Kander & Ebb, Stephen Sondheim, Ruth Mitchell, Boris Aronson, and Michael Bennett. In the process they revolutionize the American musical, reinventing it for the final decades of the 20th Century.

For me the highlights of the exhibit were Boris Aronson’s incredible set models for COMPANY, FOLLIES, and Pacific Overtures (built by his wife Lisa Jalowetz). The genius of these designs was so much more evident to me seeing them in person rather than in photos or renderings. The FOLLIES model especially was mind blowingly brilliant. What an incredible use of space.

I also enjoyed the recreation of Prince’s office with its view of the Empire State Building. You can sit at his desk and page through copies of letters and papers on the desktop and in the drawers. And when the vintage phone rings – answer it and you will hear Hal relaying the backstage tribulations of one of his shows.

No theater lover should miss this!

From my collection: The original BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR souvenir program.

Original souvenir program for BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR. It was a very enjoyable show with a great cast, and dynamic choreography by Billy Wilson. At the time I didn't understand or fully appreciate who Josephine Premice and Avon Long were -- great stars of the past. "Sweet Georgia Brown" featuring Vivian Reed was a show-stopping highlight. It was my first trip to NY in the fall of 1974 and I remember it vividly!

The African-American Origins of the Broadway Musical

I highly recommend listening to this week’s 1619 Podcast: The Birth Of American Music which is part of the New York Times brilliant 1619 Project. Journalist Wesley Morris @Wesley Morris does an amazing job of outlining how significantly American popular music has been influenced by African-American musical forms that were born out of slavery. I only wish that he had also had the time to relate how the music of Broadway – "the Showtune" – originated in much the same way.

African-American songwriters were much more active and influential during the birth years of the musical than they are usually acknowledged or given credit for. At the same moment that Irish-Americans Harrigan & Hart, and German-Jews Webber & Fields were transforming their hit Vaudeville acts and personas into proto-musical comedies, top African-American vaudevillians Williams & Walker were doing pretty much the same thing just a few blocks away.

In fact, the earliest years of the musical can be seen as a lively conversation and vibrant competition between Irish, Jewish and African-American writers and performers -- each influenced and inspired by their rivals. Some of these nearly forgotten African-American songwriters include Will Marion Cook & Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jesse A. Ship & Alex Rogers, Bob Cole and brothers James and J. Rosamond Johnson. All of them created multiple hit musicals employing African-American stories and characters and large casts of black performers during the first decade of the 20th Century.

The significance of their work and many others will no doubt be demonstrated this week at NY’s York Theatre Company when historian/performer Ben West opens his documentary musical “45 MINUTES FROM COONTOWN”.

Much has been written about how Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Harold Arlen and pretty every other songwriter of the day were captivated by African-American song forms and incorporated similar rhythms and harmonies into their own compositions. The admiration and influence went in both directions.

When the great Eubie Blake was composing the score for what would become the 1921 smash hit SHUFFLE ALONG he composed a sweeping waltz melody in the style of one of his idols, Irish-American songwriter Victor Herbert. However, at some point it was decided that they really didn’t have a spot for a waltz in the show. Like most songwriters Blake was loath to throw a away a good tune, so he revamped the song into 4/4 time and with addition of a jazzy lyric by Noble Sissle the song became not just the show’s thrilling first act finale, but also the chart topping hit, and enduring jazz standard, “I’m Just Wild About Harry”. If you sing it in waltz time you can still hear the echoes of Victor Herbert.